Roger Ebert: In Defense Of Making Out

In a post below, I linked to a funny tweet by the movie critic Roger Ebert. Subsequently, I found myself reading over his excellent blog, Roger Ebert’s Journal, which is hosted by the Chicago Sun Times, where I came upon a post called, “Making Out Is Its Own Reward,” which recounts, among other things, a scandal in 1959 when a professor, Leo Koch, wrote a letter to a student newspaper that read:

With modern contraceptives and medical advice readily available at the nearest drugstore, or at least a family physician, there is no valid reason why sexual intercourse should not be condoned among those sufficiently mature to engage in it without social consequences and without violating their own codes of morality and ethics. A mutually satisfactory sexual experience would eliminate the need for many hours of frustrating petting and lead to happier and longer lasting marriages among our young men and women.

That is all I will tell you about Ebert’s post, and the scandal it describes, because I want to encourage you to click here to read Ebert’s essay in full, even though it has basically nothing to do with politics or DC. It is wonderful, like so much of what Ebert has been writing online recently. (For more on Ebert’s attachment to his blog, read this.)